A large number of methods for producing aromatic methylamines by hydrogenating an aromatic nitrile are known. For example, British Patents 810530, 852972 and 1149251 disclose a method of hydrogenating terephthalonitrile in the presence of ammonia to produce xylylenediamine. However, this method is not suitable for the production of a compound such as halogenated aromatic methylamine, which involves occurrence of a nucleophilic substitution reaction of a halogen atom by an amino group as a side reaction, though the production of a secondary amine as a by-product can be prevented to a certain extent.
With respect to the method for producing halogenated aromatic methylamines, for example, JP-B-4-14096/1992 (the term “JP-B” as used herein means an “examined Japanese patent publication”) describes a method for producing halogenated xylylenediamine by reacting halogenated terephthalonitrile in the presence of a hydrogenation catalyst under inorganic acidic conditions. However, this method has a problem in that since the acid used is a strong acid such as sulfuric acid, a metal which readily dissolves under acidic conditions, such as nickel or cobalt, cannot be used as the catalyst and expensive palladium is used.